Tutankhamun tomb: further analysis needed to find hidden chambers

Experts had said there was a 90% chance the ancient Egyptian tomb would also contain remains of Nefertiti, but expectations have now been lowered.
Further analysis is needed of the tomb of pharaoh Tutankhamun to determine whether the resting place also contains the remains of legendary beauty Queen Nefertiti, Egypt’s antiquities minister said on Thursday. Khaled al-Anani appeared to dim some of the optimism surrounding the tomb in the ancient necropolis of Luxor after his predecessor said that there was a “90% chance” of two hidden chambers possibly containing organic material at the site.
“I hope we are going to find something else, but nothing is certain at the moment,” Anani told AFP outside Tutankhamun’s tomb. He was speaking as new radar tests were carried out on the mausoleum. The results are expected on Friday. A study by British archaeologist Nicholas Reeves has proposed that Nefertiti’s tomb could be in a secret chamber adjoining Tutankhamun’s final resting place in the Valley of Kings at Luxor in southern Egypt. Reeves, professor of archaeology at the University of Arizona, believes one door of Tutankhamun’s tomb could conceal the burial place of Nefertiti. According to him, Tutankhamun, who died unexpectedly, was buried hurriedly in an underground chamber probably not intended for him. Egypt’s former antiquities minister, Mamduh al-Damati, said this month that preliminary scans had unearthed evidence of “two hidden rooms behind the burial chamber” of the boy king.
Anani on Thursday announced a test intended to determine the thickness of a possible wall behind the funerary chamber. “There is a possibility that there is a cavity, after the latest scan. I hope we will find something … but as a scientist I need to be careful before announcing results,” he said.
He added that if the latest scan revealed further evidence of a hidden room, a small hole could be bored through a wall and a camera inserted to discover what lay behind.